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Mega Man X6 is the sixth main game in the Mega Man X series by Capcom, and is the first to not be directed by series creator Keiji Inafune. It was released in 2001 for PlayStation. The game was released for the PC as well, but only in Asia. The game was re-released on January 10th, 2006 as part of the Mega Man X Collection for the GameCube and PlayStation 2.

The game is somewhat known for its lazy translation which contains various spelling errors. It contains numerous continuity errors and unexplained facts. Additionally, the game was not dubbed, leaving only Japanese voicework. It is for the most part regarded as "horribly rushed" and "incomplete." Because of this and the game's unbalanced difficulty level, some fans regard this as one of the weakest games in the series.

Story

Three weeks after the Eurasia Incident - with Zero missing, presumed dead, and the Earth's surface uninhabitable - an influential group of Reploids begin stirring trouble by spreading rumors about sightings of a mysterious phenomena called Nightmares, which seem to be centered around Zero who, although dead, is seen by X in a viral form. Gate, the leader of the new Reploid organization, sends eight of his researchers to investigate.

Gate, curious about the state of the world, stumbles across the crash site and begins searching for something. He finds what he thinks is a piece of debris and takes it back to his lab to analyze it. A week later, Gate is suddenly far more powerful than ever, and as a result, becomes Maverick and seems to concoct a plan.

At a Maverick uprising near the crash site of the Eurasia, X comes across a malfunctioning yet powerful Mechaniloid. He battles and weakens it, but suddenly, a hazy, purple form of Zero appears and destroys it. To add to the confusion, a mysterious Reploid named High Max appears, and claims to be investigating something called the "Zero Nightmare". Angered that a Reploid would lie about his late friend, X attacks High Max, his shots deflecting harmlessly off Max's powerful skin. High Max shrugs off the attacks, telling X that "he is not wanted" and to "stay away."

Afterwards, Gate's right-hand man Isoc gives a speech telling the other Reploids that the Zero Nightmare is pure evil and causing a great deal of confusion in the world. He opts to build a Reploid Utopia (akin to General in X4), to protect them from the Nightmare while the researchers continue to investigate the eight critial areas. This, in turn, piques X's curiousity, as he doesn't trust Gate or his researchers, and goes to investigate the eight areas himself (there also seems to be a connection between Gate and Alia that Alia is not willing to share). However, the effects of the Nightmare have altered not only the physical state of the areas (wind, some areas completely revamped), but also X's perception (shifting lights making it hard to see, psychosomatic acid rain). In his mission, he comes face-to-face with the Zero Nightmare, and after destroying it, finds out that Zero is alive and well, merely healing his wounds during those three weeks. X, over-joyed, brings Zero back to Hunter Base, in which Signas asks Zero to help X in the research, as the Hunters ranks were greatly dwindled after the Eurasia incident. Zero agrees, and one by one, the eight researchers fall to the hunters.

During that time, Gate had been pondering the existence of Zero, as well as noticing Isoc's somewhat unhealthy obsession with him. But his research comes to a halt when his eight researchers are destroyed by X and Zero. Enraged, Gate challenges them to a fight, and allows them to gain access to his laboratory. High Max is attacked and ultimately destroyed, as well as Isoc, who seemed to malfunction after High Max dies. It's then that Gate reveals his intentions; he was the one who formed th Zero Nightmare out of what he thought was a piece fo debris from the crash site, only to have had it analyzed and found out it was a piece of Zero's DNA. He uses the DNA once more to power himself up for a final battle. X attacks Gate, but doesn't destroy him, and in his weakened state, Gate claimed to have one more trick to unleash upon the hunters.

Apparently, at the crash site as well, Gate got ahold of the remains of Sigma, the Maverick overlord. Sigma's pre-made body was only a few weeks old when it was found, but he had enough power to destroy Gate and challenge X to a final battle. X arrives, and sees Sigma partially made. A fight ensues, with Sigma's form being more powerful than X could imagine in his state. Once his first form explodes, Sigma loses all sense of sanity and, in a large battle body form, attacks X once more. X destroys him and teleports away with the remains of Gate.

In the end, Zero asks X why he took Gate back. X learned that he was a collegue of Alia in the past, and brought him back as a sign of mercy.

This game received a great deal of criticism from the Mega Man fanbase due to its disregard of the storyline from Mega Man X5 in which Zero is defeated by Sigma and goes into hibernation, to be awakened in the Mega Man Zero franchise. This storyline developed a great deal of anticipation over the plot details of Mega Man X6 but this was ruined by the fact that Zero was inexplicably revived shortly into X6. This has resulted in a contradiction to the plot of Mega Man Zero and may mean that Zero has effectively been resurrected twice. However, the ending for X5 was not totally specific about when Zero went into hibernation, and the plot for MMZ2 through MMZ4 require that he continued fighting until sometime during the Elf Wars.

Characters

New characters

Returning characters

Gameplay

The gameplay is very similar to Mega Man X5, although the game contains nurmerous glitches and lags in its gameplay which makes it disliked by many fans. The game is also exceptionally hard, and is the first game in the entire X series where the player can actually get stuck in a level due to substandard level design (the only recourse being to kill off all of the character's extra lives and selecting 'Stage Select Screen' on the Game Over menu, as 'Continue' would pit the player right back where he/she got stuck).

Items

  • Heart Tank - Extends the life meter for whoever finds them. There is one in each stage.
  • Sub-Tank - There are two of them in the game, and they can be filled with energy pellets for later consumption. It takes 16 pellets worth of energy to completely fill one tank, with large pellets counting for two and full-life pellets counting for four.
  • W-Tank - Can be filled with weapon pellets and used to reload your arsenal.
  • EX Tank - Extends the starting amount of lives from three to five when the player continues from a save or game over.

Armors

Just like in X5, all four pieces of each armor must be found before the armor can be used.

Falcon Armor - A watered-down version of the same armor from X5. As a result, certain abilities have been altered. X starts the game in this armor.

Abilities

  • Air Dash - The flight function is damaged and can only work long enough to enable an Air Dash.
  • Damage reduced by 50%.
  • Falcon Buster - The charge shot is the same laser shot from X5, but it no longer goes through walls. The Buster is now capable of charging weapons (it couldn't in X5).
  • Giga Attack - Showers the screen with lasers.

Blade Armor - Designed with a Samurai motif, this armor uses strength and air mobility as its strong points. The Z-Saber takes the form of a broadsword in this armor.

Abilities

  • Mach Dash - X hovers in place for a moment, then flies in the direction you hold on the D-pad. The Mach Dash can go up, down, left, or right.
  • Damage reduced by 50%.
  • Blade Buster - The charge shot fires a drill of plasma that will sometimes drill into an enemy and continues to damage it. Holding Up as you release the shot will instead create an energy-enhanced Z-Saber slash. The buster can also charge weapons.
  • Giga Attack - X fires an energy arc forward from the Z-Saber. This is similar to X's enhanced Z-Saber attack from Mega Man X3.

Shadow Armor - Designed with a ninja motif, this armor excels in some areas and fails in others, making this armor quite unbalanced. The Z-Saber takes the form of a katana in this armor.

Abilities

  • Ninja Jump - Holding Up as you jump will result in a higher jump. If X hits a ceiling, he'll stick to it for a while. While sticking, he can shoot a 3-way shot towards the ground.
  • Spike Guard - The armor makes X immune to spikes. Gate's lab is almost impossible to get through without this armor as a result.
  • Hyper Grip - X can hang onto walls without sliding.
  • Damage reduced by 50%.
  • Shadow Buster - The buster's standard shot fires ninja star-like shots in various (and random) forward angles. The charge shot is an extra-powerful Z-Saber slash. This buster cannot use any other weapons.
  • Giga Attack - A pair of energy crescents encircle X, damaging enemies at close range.

Ultimate Armor - The enhanced version of the X4 armor. Available by entering a secret code. When activated, X will start the intro stage in this armor. Unlike X5, the Ultimate Armor does not replace the Falcon Armor, which can still be equipped.

Abilities

  • Air Dash.
  • Hover function.
  • Damage reduced by 50%.
  • Plasma extention - A fully charged X-Buster shot will fire a destructive ball of energy. The ball will leave behind trails that continue to damage enemies.
  • Ability to charge weapons.
  • Nova Strike - X flies forward in a plasma-powered air dash. Can be used indefinitely.

Maverick bosses

Name Form Stage Copied weapon Learned technique Weakness
Commander YammarkDragonflyAmazon AreaYammar Option Yammar OptionRay Arrow/Rekkoha
Rainy TurtloidSnapping TurtleInami TempleMeteor RainEnsuizan (Circle Water Slash)Ice Burst/Z-Saber
Shield SheldonScallopLaser InstituteGuard ShellGuard ShellMetal Anchor/Rakukojin
Blizzard WolfangWolfNorth Pole AreaIce BurstHyoroga (Ice Wolf Fang)Magma Blade/Shoenzan
Blaze HeatnixPhoenixMagma AreaMagma BladeShoenzan (Soaring Flame Slash)Ground Dash/Sentsuizan
Infinity MijinionWater FleaWeapon CenterRay ArrowRekkoha (Splitting Light Command) Guard Shell
Metal Shark PlayerHammerhead SharkRecycling LabMetal AnchorRakukojin (Falling Steel Blade)Meteor Rain/Ensuizan
Ground ScaravichScarabCentral MuseumGround DashSentsuizan (Spinning Crash Slash) Yammar Option

Trivia

  • Unlike earlier games in the series, X6 preserves the Japanese names for each Maverick in the English edition, the exceptions being Shield Sheldon, whose Japanese name is Shieldner Sheldon, and Metal Shark Player, whose Japanese name is Metal Shark Prayer. The latter is either a mistranslation of the intended name, or a reference to his "resurrecting" powers. It is also the first to preserve all the Japanese voices as well; but this is more likely to be a result of the rushed NA localization of the game, which was only a week after the Japanese version. Most likely, the correct translation should be 'Metalshark Preyer' (the katakana for his name reads Metorushaakupureiyaa).

  • The opening song is The "Moonlight" and "The Answer" by Showtaro Morikubo, the voice actor for X. The ending theme is "I.D.E.A" by RoST. The is one of the few X games to have the opening song appear in the US version.

  • Zero gets new frames of animation in this game; his saber slashes are slower and more refined, his double jump involves him spinning in a somersault to gain altitude, and his Z Buster animation has a much faster start up time.

  • Several of the music tracks from the Japanese release have been altered in the US and European releases. Most noticable are Zero's theme music (which has altered intruments) and the Opening Stage (which has a guitar rift in the western releases.)

References to other Mega Man games

  • The song played when X reunites with Zero is a remix of Zero's Death from X1.
  • The music in Gate's Lab is a remix of the 3rd Sigma Stage in X2.
  • Holographic versions of Sting Chameleon, Magna Centipede, and Blast Hornet are special attacks of Metal Shark Player.
  • Diving replicas of Storm Eagle are the charged attack of Metal Anchor.
  • The reploids in the boss corridor of the intro stage are similar in appearance to Middy and Techno, two hacker Reploids from Mega Man Xtreme.
  • The theme heard when fighting the final form of Sigma is a mix of three: The fight with Sigma's first form in X1, and both Sigma forms in X2.
  • The Soul Eraser Incident from Xtreme 2 is directly mentioned by Alia in this game.

2001 computer and video games | 2002 computer and video games | Mega Man X games | PlayStation games | Windows games

Mega Man X 6

 

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